Tag Archives: Southern California Edison

Judge Consulted Edison On San Onofre Deal

by Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune

The utilities commission is unique among state agencies in that it employs judges who serve as arbiters, even when people have a beef with the agency itself. Members of the public cannot take action in Superior Court to challenge a utilities commission decision, but must appear before a commission employee. … The commission tasked an outside attorney to review its record on such private dealings, and the firm in June reported that violations are common and tilt the process in favor of utility companies. Legislators passed a slate of reform bills, which were vetoed earlier this month by Gov. Jerry Brown, who said they contained conflicting provisions that made them unworkable. Read More ›

San Diego U-T Editorial: Gov. Brown And The PUC: What, Me Worry?

by The Editorial Board, San Diego Union-Tribune

San Onofre nuclear plant

This is maddening. At any point over the past year, Brown could have given guidance to lawmakers on how to structure PUC fixes that he thought appropriate. Instead, apparently discerning a world in which it’s cool for regulators and utilities to have a buddy-buddy relationship, the governor ended up blocking all reforms. … Despite [scandalous] revelations, the PUC has shrugged off calls to reopen negotiations on San Onofre and has done little to cooperate with investigators… [and] pretends that $850 million in already-planned PG&E infrastructure improvements are a penalty. This is the corrupt, petty culture that Jerry Brown thinks is worth preserving. Read More ›

CPUC Reform Bills On Governor’s Desk

by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle

One percenters enjoy fine wine.

SB660 implements the reforms the law firm called for and closes a loophole that allowed for secret meetings as long as they were one-sided and the commissioners did all the talking. Leno said he is hopeful that Brown will sign the bill. “We took some amendments and we stood our ground on others” in talks with the governor’s office, he said. The resulting bill was passed unanimously by both the state Senate and Assembly. “It is clearly a quality product on a very timely and important issue,” Leno said, adding that the bill would make a difference “to a commission suffering systemic problems.” Read More ›

State Consumer Advocate To Pull Out Of San Onofre Nuclear Plant Settlement

by Ivan Penn, Los Angeles Times

A multibillion-dollar settlement over the closed San Onofre nuclear power plant took another blow Monday as the state consumer advocate said that he was withdrawing from the deal and would urge regulators to reopen the case. Joe Como … said Monday that he was “very disappointed” by a judge’s ruling Aug. 5 that Edison failed to report communication with regulators about a settlement. Como added that the judge did not go far enough and wrote an opinion that still gives too much latitude for utilities to communicate with regulators outside public view. Read More ›

Judge Cites 10 Violations For Edison

by Jeff McDonald, The San Diego Union-Tribune

One percenters enjoy fine wine.

Southern California Edison on Wednesday was found to have violated rules prohibiting backchannel communications at least 10 times in its dealings with regulators over the failed San Onofre nuclear plant. Criminal investigators and others have been reviewing whether improper private communications have compromised the public proceedings of the utilities commission. Read More ›

State To Probe Peevey Party Proceeds

by Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune

CPUC headquarters

The soiree honored former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey, and funds were raised in the name of his successor, Michael Picker. The $250-a-plate event was held at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco as consumer activists protested outside. Read More ›

Committee Seeks San Onofre Emails Again

by Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune

San Onofre nuclear plant

The chairman of the Assembly committee that oversees the California Public Utilities Commission has given the agency until the end of this month to secure and turn over certain emails and other documents from Southern California Edison. Chairman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, is asking Commission President Michael Picker to use his authority to demand that Edison provide internal and external emails about the failed San Onofre nuclear plant north of Oceanside. … [The] plant has become a key subject in criminal investigations of the state utilities commission. Much of the scrutiny revolves around private communications between regulators and utility executives. Read More ›

Regulator Went To Power Event In Napa

by Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune

One percenters enjoy fine wine.

“To my knowledge, the Western Power Trading Forum is one big opportunity to have an illegal ex parte with any commissioner that the group can convince to come and talk to them,” said former commission President Loretta Lynch, now an attorney in private practice. “In some of the most luxurious settings, groups like WPTF wine and dine commissioners while engaging in private, backroom conversations concerning issues directly in front of the PUC. … All Californians should question whether PUC proceedings are appropriately decided, and we should all ask our legislators and the governor to stop this corrupting practice.” Read More ›

2 New Warrants Served In CPUC Case

by Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune

CPUC shield

The criminal investigation of the California Public Utilities Commission appears to be intensifying, with state agents serving a fresh round of search warrants at the regulators’ headquarters in San Francisco and at Southern California Edison offices outside Los Angeles. The Attorney General’s Office wants details about a settlement agreement that assigned Southern California ratepayers to cover $3.3 billion in shutdown costs for the San Onofre nuclear plant, which closed on an emergency basis in January 2012 after Edison installed faulty replacement steam generators that caused a radiation leak. Read More ›

California Electricity Rates To Undergo Biggest Change In 15 Years

by David R. Baker and Hamed Aleaziz, The San Francisco Chronicle

California regulators radically revamped the way electricity rates work in the state, approving changes Friday that will raise monthly utility bills for the most energy-efficient homeowners while giving many bigger energy users a break. … “This is a lose-lose for customers, but business as usual for the CPUC, which has once again done PG&E, Edison and SDG&E’s bidding,” [said Mark Toney, head of The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group. … Changing the number of tiers and cutting the difference between them will raise bills for the most energy-efficient households. Read More ›

Utilities Agency Reforms Still Pending

by Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune

More than eight months later, no employee discipline beyond [chief of staff Carol Brown’s resignation] has been made publicly known, and some of those involved in questionable communications have been promoted. New commission president Michael Picker, a former aide to Gov. Jerry Brown whose nomination is pending Senate approval, has engaged in backchannel communications himself, as reported by U-T San Diego in March. … The commission is still evaluating the 65,000 or so PG&E emails to figure out which employees may have violated rules against inappropriate communications. Any discipline is likely to be kept confidential, [an agency spokeswoman] said. Read More ›

PUC Critics Cite Concerns Over ‘Revolving Door’

by George Avalos, San Jose Mercury News

revolving door

[Michael] Peevey, who served as a PUC commissioner and president for 12 years, is seen by the agency’s sharpest critics as the poster child for the damage caused by the revolving door. He came to the PUC after working as president of Southern California Edison, which provides electricity for 14 million customers and is regulated by the PUC. … The exchange of jobs between the PUC and utilities extends to staff as well as commissioners. Tens of thousands of emails released starting last year and extending into January show many instances of PUC staffers working with PG&E executives in a cozy fashion. Read More ›

SB 215 Sustains Drive For CPUC Reforms Originally Sought Via SB 660

1/27/15 update: The Senate passed SB 215 (Leno) 37-0 yesterday, sending the CPUC reform bill to the Assembly. The bill includes limits on “ex parte” (private) communications that CFC had sought in SB 660, which had passed both the Senate and Assembly last fall but was vetoed by Governor … Read More ›